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Neapolitan Mafia Utilizes Bitcoin Payments

Organized crime in the Italian region of Campania gets used to digital currencies. To avoid control, negotiations on the sale of drugs and the transactions take place in the Deep Web, where Bitcoin became popular means of payment. In such a situation, “suppliers” remain beyond the reach of law enforcement agencies.

The first case of payment with cryptocurrency was registered in Italy in 2016: the police arrested a student who was selling drugs online and paid suppliers with cryptocurrency. Two years later, a criminal gang was arrested, procuring drugs with crypto as well. Last year, a “hi-tech” drug dealer was arrested in Rome when buying cocaine at the “competitive” price of 80 euros per gram — because he was paying for them in BTC.

Now the cryptocurrency drug traffic has moved to Campania region. Direzione distrettuale antimafia (DDA), the district anti-organized crime agency, has busted a criminal gang of 11 people. Its head was a 19-year-old native of Moldova.

Law forces managed to arrest the delivery man, but the name of the sender and seller of drugs remained unknown as he transferred bitcoins anonymously. Amidst crypto payments, the organizers communicated with couriers and drug suppliers via Surespot (an encrypted messenger).

The thread of investigation leads to Neapolitan organized crime — Camorra. One of the arrested young people is the nephew of one of the leaders of local criminal clans. Law enforcement bodies don’t exclude that he could be a messenger between young retail drug traffickers, IT specialists and the Neapolitan Camorra, engaged in the wholesale and small supplies of drugs. It is possible that the "traditional" Camorra intends to make a technological breakthrough with the help of technocrats by switching to bitcoins.

The news was prepared by Vsevolod Gnetii, a special correspondent for Bitnewstoday in Italy